Out of curiosity, are there any pipers down in the San Antonion/Austin area of Texas? I was informed by a friend that she had heard of a few.
(Or, frankly, any traditional musician.)
My friend Jamey Hamilton is a fine trad flute player, currently attending college in Waco…
From what I understand, there’s a pretty lively scene in San Antonio-try Cliff Moses’s website (punch in his name and do a search) to get his e-mail. He’s a very fine Irish hammered dulcimer player (yes, I know-a contridiction in terms!) that lives in SA and is part of the scene there.
Go to the member list and there are a number of Texans listed.
Being born in Corpus Christi, I consider myself a Texan originally..graduated from High School there and love the Austin area, but will never go back!
Mainly because my wife hates the place, and I’m enjoying Atlanta.
-gary
You might like to try the Uilleann Obsession website. From that homepage, click on “links,” then “piping,” and finally “Austin Uilleann Pipers’ club.” There are a lot of other clubs listed too, even one here in Florida.
Ed
There’s also the Uilleann Pipe Information List: http://www.pipers-hut.com/UPIL/. There’s a guy in Houston I think it is, Raymond somthing or another, he’s a piping nut as they say.
Is that Ramon you speak of Kevin? Is he still playing?
You guys should also look up Rob Forkner the bodhrán maker. He’s piping now too. Look up Metloef Irish Drums on Google and you’ll get him.
Patrick.
Yeah, Ramon. Last I heard he was having a steel top hat made, ala Gangs of New York. Quite a character.
Get out of it! I thought the double bass regulator was weird enough 
PD.
I’ll be back in about 8 months from my exile behind the Maple Curtain.
I’ve got a Rogge narrow D 1/2 set and am about to become the proud father of a bouncing baby B full set by Wooff.
Of the Cloghanmore Wooffs, of course.
Ramon Martin is still playing, as far as I know, but it’s been months since I’ve seen him . . .
Stuart
Hey Snoogie-
I graduated from Gregory-Portland High School in the 70’s…where’d you go to school? I had a lot of band geek friends at Carroll and King. My parents still live in Corpus…
Hey Janice, my dad worked for an oil company, so we moved around a lot. I attended 14 different schools before graduating.
I went to Springbranch Elementary for a while…but graduated from Karnes City High in '78. KC is a little spot in the road from San Antonio to Corpus. If you blink you’ll miss it. 
I was a band geek too…played trumpet which is where I learned to read music.
-gary
The esteemed John Liestman, in Houston, is also on the UPs and knows the nefarious Ramon…
But you were asking Austin/San Antonio!
Write to Rob Forkner. Or maybe he’ll see the thread. He probably knows the folks around the hill country.
Stuart
Thanks Stuart, and all, for the suggestions.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Oh yeah…I meant to reply to this when I first saw it but am just getting a round tuit. Yeah, there are a few pipers around here, but only a few pop around for seshes. Most show up here:
http://cberdoll.home.texas.net/
Nice fellows those guys. Kenny is a pretty good piper and is the only person in this area (for the limited time being) with an actual complete set of pipes (Rogge). Jamey Hamilton is in Waco finishing up at Baylor but is in Austin all the time for gigs and seshes and is a fantastic piper- a natural, actually- although he doesn’t yet have a set at all. I play also and have good fun with it, although I suspect that when I get the call from Mr.Kennedy that the gigantic B set is ready I will B having that much more fun.
The place is actually home to a larger slew of good fiddle players than pipers, as you might expect, this being Tejas and everything. But we’re working on them!
Rob